Rise
by junipers
Summary: A Neku-becomes-the-Conductor fic. Spoilers for the endgame. Written for the Summer Revival Mission on subarashiki ds. No pairing.


**A/N: I wrote this for the Summer Revival Mission over at subarashiki_ds on Livejournal. It is ridiculously late but WHO CARES amirite**

**So um. Yeah. Full of headcanon-y goodness and spoilers.**

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><p>Neku has never felt so tired. His three weeks in the Game have finally ended, but there's still so much more he has to go through before he can truly reach the end.<p>

For now though, he can rest. He goes through weeks of what he believes is well deserved peace and quiet; weeks to recover from the ordeal.

Joshua views it as preparation for what is to come next.

Neku feels it coming, sort of. He almost anticipates Joshua's return. He does not believe the Composer will leave him alone forever; he is, in fact, surprised that it's taking him so long to come back.

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><p>"He's my new Conductor, Sanae," Joshua says. "You know the rules. I'm bringing him back to the UG."<p>

Hanekoma sighs. "Boss, you _know_ what the higher-ups—"

"Does it matter what they said? Neku is the Conductor now. We don't even have a choice."

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><p>Neku's days slowly become more and more hectic. One day he's fine, everything's normal, and the next he's either so lethargic he can't move or so energetic he can hardly sleep.<p>

It's sort of a gradual change in mood, really. Sliding up and down the scale of emotions.

And one day, out of nowhere, he swears he sees Pinky and Lollipop. _With their wings._ He doesn't think much of it until he realizes they're flickering in and out of sight, and he remembers their wings aren't visible in the RG. Neku shakes his head – he's just hallucinating, he _has_ to be – and continues walking home. Not sleeping enough, he figures; too high on the Music of Shibuya, not that he's really aware of this yet.

In the back of his head though, he can sense it. It's so faint he can barely hear it, but in class he always has to check that his music is turned off or he hasn't got his earbuds in.

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><p>"Wait until he's adjusted, at least," Hanekoma suggests.<p>

Joshua rubs his temples, his eyes closed. "Fine. I just hope he's ready soon."

The Music is so chaotic now, melodies clashing together in a whirlwind of incoherent noise. It's painful.

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><p>And the Music is slowly getting louder.<p>

Neku constantly wonders where the sound is coming from. It's not a song he's heard before, and he listens to his MP3 player so often he's sure he's heard each song a thousand times before.

He can sometimes tune it out but God it _hurts. _The sound slowly gets louder and crazier as time goes on; the kind of sound one might hear from a hundred instruments played out of key, each individual at a different place in the song – always a few beats ahead or behind.

It makes his ears ring and his head pound and he can't take it anymore and oh God oh Joshua this is your fault make it stop—

"It's time."

Neku recognizes Joshua's voice, but he barely has a chance to register this before he blacks out.

* * *

><p>"Joshua?"<p>

Joshua looks behind him to see Neku groggily pushing himself up.

"Yes, dear?"

Neku glares at him. "Don't call me that."

Joshua giggles. "Yes, sir."

"Ugh." Neku rolls his eyes. "Anyway, where am I? What did you do?"

"I didn't do a thing."

Neku looks around and takes in his surroundings. He recognizes the fish swimming around on the floor and the foosball table over…there. Those are the only familiar things about this room. Still, he's pretty sure he knows where he is.

It is so quiet. Neku is only just noticing the lack of chaotic sound. Instead, there is just a faint sound in the back of his head, something akin to elevator music.

"Feeling better?" Joshua asks, turning his whole body to face Neku.

"Actually…yeah," Neku says. The throbbing in his head has reduced to a dull ache and his ears have stopped ringing. A definite improvement.

"So, what is it time for?"

"Hmm?" Joshua raises an eyebrow.

"Right before I passed out," Neku explains. "You said, it's time."

"Oh!" Joshua snaps his fingers. "Right!"

"Well? What's it time for?"

"Look behind you."

The smirk on Josh's face makes him a bit nervous, but Neku turns his head anyway to see the telltale black wings of a Reaper.

"Congratulations." Joshua smiles. "You're my new Conductor."

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><p>Neku wishes he had any idea what he's gotten himself into. Rather, what <em>Joshua<em> has gotten him into.

It's tedious work, Conducting the Game. He has next to know power compared to the Composer, and not as much over the Reaper's as he'd like. Unless Joshua's busy, he's more or less a messenger.

He still hears Shibuya's music, but he can tune it out completely while he's in the RG. Why would he want to, though? It's such a beautiful song now.

It has a Conductor to keep it in order.

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><p>No. No no no no no this wasn't supposed to happen. Not now, not ever. It was an accident. An accident!<p>

He didn't want to do it. He isn't even entirely sure what happened, but he barely had a choice and he can't take it back.

There's nothing he can do now.

And so Neku takes the throne.


End file.
